News

Oliver Letwin MP: Website to map groups

In the next few days, I will be launching a new website. Before you say to yourself, gentle reader, that you really can’t bear another piece of political communication, I should reassure you that this particular website has nothing whatsoever to do with politics. It is indeed as severely and ruthlessly apolitical as a website can be.

The website in question is designed to provide a map showing the multitude of social enterprises that are flourishing in West Dorset.

To begin with, the map will show about 200 such social enterprises, each of whom has provided their contact details and short description of their activities. I hope that, even with just 200 social enterprises on it, the map will prove useful – both in attracting volunteers and other support to the social enterprises that appear on it, and by enabling social and community projects in one place to obtain information about similar or related projects in other parts of West Dorset, of which they may not for one reason or another been aware.

It is, of course, remarkable in itself that there are as many as 200 social enterprises in our little corner of England. And, as anyone who visits the map will rapidly become aware, the span of their activities is equally remarkable.

But the truth is that there are many, many more social and community groups engaged in a welter of activities up and down West Dorset.

I would love to be able to put them all on the map. But there are some whom we have tried to contact and who have not yet, at least, come back with their details and description – and I am absolutely sure that there are many others besides, of whom I don’t know and whom we have not therefore yet contacted. I hope that anybody reading this column who is involved in an enterprise of this kind and whose enterprise is not already on the map will contact me at oliver.letwin.mp@parliament.uk

The Bridport area is particularly rich in community groups – so I am hopeful that this column in the Bridport News will haul in a good catch for the map. But I am equally sure that a lot of this will have to be done through what is now known as ‘viral marketing’ – so I hope that anyone reading this who knows of some other organisation which should be on the map will also tell them about it.